Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Eating Disorders Do Affect Mature Women

Eating disorders are often in the news. Frequently people, particularly women that seek treatment for addiction also present with an eating disorder. Many consider eating disorders as a young person's disease. Now according to an ABC News report which was published this week:

"Whether there is more awareness and diagnoses remains unclear, but many clinical experts said they have seen a spike in women over 40 seeking treatment [for eating disorder] in recent years."

Here are a few observations provided by Susie Roman of the National Eating Disorders Association:

Eating disorders' triggers may differ among the different age groups - traumatic life events affect all age groups

Older women's eating disorders symptoms often "resurface" from an earlier age

Common triggers for older women are divorce, death of a loved one or children leaving home.

More than 10 million Americans suffer from bulimia, anorexia or other types like binge eating

To learn more about eating disorders view an interview with ABC News Now's Dr. Timothy Johnson discussing the latest news with Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., Director the University of North Carolina's Eating Disorders Treatment.